Boys Are Unnecessary Commodities in Life
by kathaania
Summary: Marlene McKinnon's life motto states that Boys are unnecessary commodities in life. This is a difficult belief to maintain, however, when Sirius Black is thrown into the mix...


Disclaimer: JKR owns the Harry Potter universe, but I'm sure you already knew that. I'm just tinkering with it…

I have always held the belief that boys are unnecessary commodities.

Only it is a very difficult belief to maintain when The One and Only Sirius Black has his left hand pressed gently into the small of my back, bringing our bodies closer and closer together. To make things even thornier, the setting is straight out of a cheesy romance movie. A soft waltz plays into the background, hardly noticeable, very romantic. The lights are dimmed. A gorgeous man holds me in his arms, giving me a small smirk. He is completely oblivious to the aforementioned cheese. Or perhaps he is very well aware (his smirks are difficult to understand, you see).

Stop! Stop this ridiculous line of thought!

In times like these I must force myself to remember my motto: Boys are unnecessary commodities in life.

I find myself chanting these very words over and over again in my head.

_Boys are unnecessary commodities in life, boys are unnecessary commodities in life…_

But he has the most beautiful grey eyes! They are so friendly, just begging to be gazed into.

Oh Merlin! I just gazed!

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

_Boys are unnecessary commodities in life, boys are unnecessary commodities in life…_

This really is not a very desirable situation. What? Why are you looking at me like that? So you think I am being ridiculous, do you? Well, I have stories that could make your skin crawl. I will take you on the short journey through my love life to show you the horrors that have lead me to my life's motto.

My name is Marlene McKinnon and my story will change the way you look at boys for the rest of your life.

It all began my first year of Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express. That is when I first met The One and Only Sirius Black. Yes, he was known as just that. See, I had heard rumors of him before I even got to Kings Cross Station. I heard the girls giggling (the gigglers I call them) in the robe shops, the ice cream parlors, the book store, etcetera. So you understand my disgust this one boy in particular that everyone was going crazy over?

I did not even know it was The One and Only Sirius Black when I first saw him, and I will admit this much, he was a rather cute little first year. Already he had that devious, trademark smirk which even now draws way too much of my attention to his perfectly shaped lips. Already his grey eyes were friendly, just begging to be gazed in. Already he had that bark-like laugh that draws a smile from me whenever I hear it.

Of course he had to go and ruin this picture perfect image I had of him while admiring his physical perfection from afar.

He saw me watching him. I was sitting by myself deeply engaged in my activities of watching the boy in the compartment across from my own. He flashed a smirk. My heart pounded.

'Oh God! He's walking over here!' I remember thinking. I was excited, as I had not yet prejudiced myself against his gender, though I was a bit shy. I immediately directed my attention towards the leather seat, specifically a dark spot which looked amazingly like a turtle…

"Hey baby, what's your sign?" he asked drawing my attention away from the leather seat, specifically the dark spot which looked amazingly like a turtle.

These words sent several thoughts running through my head.

1) He's talking to me!

2) Did he just call me 'baby'?

3) That moron! He did just call me 'baby'! How would he like it if I called him 'infant'?

4) 'What's your sign?' What the hell kind of question is that?

5) Holy Merlin! I think that was a pick-up line! What does he think I am exactly, that such cheese might actually work on me?

I just glared at him for several seconds before responding. "Libra."

Then another thought ran through my head: why, by Merlin's beard, did I just answer that question?

He smirked then put his hand out. "I'm Sirius Black, but you can just call me 'Sexy'."

So this is The One and Only Sirius Black. Wait up a minute, did he just say 'sexy'? What eleven-year-old actually has that word in his vocabulary? What eleven-year-old has the audacity to say such a thing? It must be the influence of the gigglers.

"Well, Sexy," I began, now finding my voice and my nerve. He smirked again when I called him 'Sexy.' "Get out of my compartment." His face fell.

"Why? Don't you want the company?" he asked, almost genuinely, and for half a second I considered letting him stay. But really, I did not want to be transformed into one of the gigglers who had nothing to discuss but the way his hair fell. Though I will admit this much, even at eleven, Sirius Black's hair fell in a rather sexy way across his eyes. Tell him I used his name and 'sexy' in the same sentence and I will be forced to kill you, by the way.

"She has company," a girl's voice called from behind him. I craned my neck around 'Sexy' to see who it was: some girl with ridiculously red hair and green eyes. My saving grace and soon to be my best friend.

'Sexy' looked at the redhead and smirked. "So baby, what's your sign?"

She looked at him very confused. I could imagine the things running through her head, as they had just run through mine.

"Sexy! Out!" I yelled pointing to the door. He did get up, though a bit reluctantly.

"I'll see you two at Hogwarts!" he could not help but add. At this time, the redhead joined in my screams of "OUT!" Now he really did leave. We closed the door behind him, but not before we heard a bit of the conversation in the compartment across from ours.

"You were wrong. It didn't work," 'Sexy' told another boy who looked somewhat like him but with messier hair and glasses.

The other boy shrugged before commenting, "That redhead was real pretty..."

The girl, who was now sitting beside me on the leather seat, specifically the dark mark which looked amazingly like a turtle, gave a disgusted look upon hearing this.

Are you surprised to find out the redhead, whom I soon found was named Lily Evans, has just married the boy she crinkled her nose at all those years ago?

She abandoned our religion (which was entirely based on my life motto) some time ago. James Potter (the boy she crinkled her nose at) chased her for the longest time. It was rather pathetic, really. But he was persistent, and she finally saw his charm, much to my dismay. Does she not realize he is an unnecessary commodity like the rest of them?

She fell in _love_, she says.

Psh, I say.

Though I wonder if she felt somewhat like I do now when she abandoned our religion. Did she also have to repeat "Boys are an unnecessary commodity" over and over until her will power finally gave through and she _gazed_ into Potter's eyes?

I pray to Merlin that it was not so.

Because in that case, I am soon to follow in her path.

But The One and Only Sirius Black is very different than James Potter, though they are practically attached at the hip. Sirius never chased me like James chased Lily. No, he was much to preoccupied with sending suggestive smirks at the gigglers, who latter became his fan club (it was partially out of hatred towards idiotic girls like them that I created my motto, in an effort to remain as unlike them as possible). I know this was to make me jealous. Lily told me that James told her that Sirius told him it was so.

This unnecessary commodity knew me all to well.

I am stubborn to a tee, but I can do stupid things out of jealous rage, which is exactly what I did one day.

Which brings me to the second atrocity in my love life: the day I kissed The One and Only Sirius Black.

It was a fine day in my sixth year. I was boyfriendless as always. It was becoming quite the class joke, actually. Even Lily had a date to the impending Halloween Ball, which I reprimanded her for on a daily basis. I told her it was disloyalty to our faith. She said unnecessary commodities were good for dancing with and it was not like they were going on a date; it was just for fun. This is where the argument would end because she was right, even though I would not admit it (remember, I said I was stubborn). At least she was not going with Potter.

So anyways, we are walking around the lake talking about nonsense and there are the dynamic four sitting under their usual tree. Today they were not making fun of Snape, which made Lily happy, but Sirius was doing that smirk thing to the gigglers. He kept giving me purposeful stares which I purposefully ignored. Or at least I tried to.

We walked by them and James immediately jumped up and began messing with his hair. I could see Lily twitching already. She hated it when he did that, and she knew he was going to talk to her.

"Hey Evans," James began. Lily was doing quite a good job at pretending to not see him up until then. She looked up in mock surprise when he called her.

"Why hello Potter," she said in sarcastic civility. I blocked out the rest, knowing what was to come next: Potter re-enacting the inquisition, harshly questioning why in the world she was going to the Halloween Ball with some Hufflepuff she hardly knew instead of him. Alternatively, I chose to focus on Sirius Black which, let me tell you, was a very bad idea.

He kept giving me sideways glances as he sent sexy smirks towards anything breathing, except for me.

Why was he excluding me?

Did I just think that?

_Boys are an unnecessary commodity in life…_

The only thing is, the chant works better when your stare is not transfixed on the unnecessary commodity.

He was driving me crazy. He had very nice cheek bones, and his skin looked so soft and his arms so muscular.

Agg!

_Boys, especially The One and Only Sirius Black, are unnecessary commodities in life…_

But the chant really was not helping. In fact, it was doing all the good the potato famine did Ireland.

Well, the next thing I started to notice was his very nice lips and how wonderful they would feel on mine, and how crazy it would make all those gigglers feel when they saw them on mine. It would teach those girls a lesson: fawning does no good. But this later thought was only a rationalization I came up with in retrospect to justify my actions.

Really, I was crazy jealous that all these stupid, stupid girls were getting more attention out of him than me, and, most importantly, how wonderful his lips would feel on mine (I know I have said it once, but it is important enough to say again!).

So I went up to him.

I turned his head so he was looking me straight into the eye. I do not think I have ever seen someone look so surprised in my life.

And then I kissed him. Hard.

And then he started to kiss me back. Hard.

Then something seemed to click in my head. _I am kissing Sirius Black!_

And then I thought two things:

This feels absolutely ten times more marvelous then I thought it would!

Agg! What are you doing? Pull away now!

And I did.

I looked at him for a second, turned around abruptly, and then began chanting to myself: _Boys are unnecessary commodities in life…_

And then I thought a third thing: God, I hope Lily did not see that.

But she did, and naturally gave me hell for the remainder of the year, which was the same amount of time I avoided The One and Only Sirius Black and the same amount of time he avoided me.

Are you wondering what happened after the year was up?

It is a fascinating tale really.

Now it was our seventh year and Lily and I were sitting in our dorms reading all by our lonesome. The 'lonesome' part would have been strange since it was positively miserably outside and no one else in our year had classes at that moment, except all the other girls in our dorm had boyfriends and were thus preoccupied in some empty classroom or broom cupboard. I cannot say I blame them. That is the one thing you miss out on when your motto in life is such as mine, but Alas! They were gigglers and I was not and I certainly did not want some of their reputations…

But I am straying from the point. As I was saying, we were sitting in our room when Lily says, out of the blue, "James asked me to the Halloween Ball."

I kept on reading my book because this really did not interest me much. It was quite expected. What I heard next was not expected, however.

"I said yes," Lily continued in my silence.

At this I looked up at her, closing my book abruptly and with a snap. "You WHAT?" I screamed. She had been more civil towards him lately, but I thought that was merely a result of her new responsibility to "set a good example" as Head Girl.

"I said yes, Marlene," she said more confidently now as she also closed the book she had before her. "He really is quite nice, once you get past the arrogant exterior…"

I interrupted her here. "Lily, I seem to remember a vow you took not so many years ago!"

"Come now, Marlene! You can't hold me to that! He was a great prat then…"

"AND HE'S GOTTEN _BETTER?_"

"Well, that hair thing is just a nervous habit, you know…"

"Lily…" I growled dangerously.

"Marlene…" she replied mocking my tone.

"What happened to change your mind?" I asked sternly, completely ignoring her last comment. She grew silent at this. She was not saying something. What was she not saying? I heard her mumble something under her breath.

"What did you just say?" I asked her quite loudly. I noticed some third years peaking into our room curiously as they made their way down to the common room.

"I kissed him, all right?" She yelled.

"You WHAT?"

"Oh, don't take that indignant tone with me. I seem to remember a certain pair of lips in this very room on Sirius Black…" Lily reprimanded only to be interrupted by the owner of said pair of lips.

"That is neither here nor there!" I shouted angrily, knowing full well her point was both here and there.

"Marlene! Listen to me for one moment!" She finally bellowed over my protests. I was quiet and listened to her.

"He might be unnecessary for life, but he certainly is necessary for happiness," she whispered breathing heavily from yelling. For a moment, I was not sure if she was speaking of James Potter or Sirius Black.

"I think I'm in love with him, Marlene," she continued after a moment, even more quietly than before. I studied her as she made every attempt to look anywhere except at me. I could see the truth in her eyes of what she said. I stood from my bed and went to hug my best friend.

"Well then," I began. "You should go to the Ball with him, and leave me in the dust, sole believer of our ancient faith."

Lily laughed before becoming serious. "Why do you insist on keeping your distance, Marlene? He'd go with you if you asked!" We both knew the "he" she spoke of: The One and Only Sirius Black.

"Why do I have to ask him, yeah? Why doesn't he ask me if he wants to go with me so bad?" I asked her growing louder.

"Because he knows you'd say 'no' if he asked," Lily answered.

"Exactly. I'm not worth the risk of rejection. At least Potter put himself out there!" I replied stubbornly and defiantly. Lily rolled her eyes at my answer.

"So you're going…"

"By myself, of course!" I hollered.

Now, this little anecdote may seem completely pointless in my story. It is not. This leads up to Part Three of my tale: the Halloween Ball of my seventh year.

It may seem strange that I would even bother going to a Ball without a date, but that is certainly coming from a person who has never been to a Ball all by her lonesome before. It is actually quite fun. Dates can get very boring. I still dressed spectacularly (that year I had my long chestnut hair in a French Twist and wore a strapless, scarlet red dress that was absolutely beautiful) and I must say The One and Only Sirius Black was watching quite starry-eyed as I came down the girl's dormitory stairs, not that I was paying attention or anything.

Sirius of course had a date, a sixth year girl in our house who was a prominent member of the Sirius Black Fan Club. I was slightly bitter about it, but as Lily reminded me, I could have asked him. At this, I simply waved her away calling her "ridiculous" and "blinded-by-love." Why, after all, would I want to go to a Ball with Sirius Black? He was the most unnecessary of unnecessary commodities.

By some twist of faith, however, which I now have reason to believe Lily and James had a hand in, it seemed Sirius's date became deathly ill about five minutes into the Ball. She insisted Sirius stay and have fun before running off to the bathroom. Naturally, that left me, the only single party present, as Sirius's unofficial date as the couples all got up to dance with each other.

I could have gotten up and danced by myself, as I usually would, but for some reason I stayed seated at that table with Sirius. Something told me not to get up and dance, not yet at least.

"It's kind of stupid, us not talking," he said, breaking the silence between us.

"Yeah," I agreed with a nod of the head.

More silence.

"I'm sorry I jumped you like that."

He gave me his trademark smirk. "Why are you sorry?"

At this last remark I just kind of blinked at him. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

He let out a bark at my blank expression. "I, for one, enjoyed myself."

More blinking on my part.

He seemed to be waiting for me to say something, and when I didn't after a while he started to get up. I grabbed his hand.

"Wait… Sirius…"

He turned to look at me.

_Boys are an unnecessary commodity in life…_

"Want to dance?"

So, this leads me to the first time I danced with the One and Only Sirius Black and what happened next might give you some explanation as to why I am a tad worried about dancing with him right now. It started out innocently enough: a couple of upbeat songs with random arm waving. Then a slow song came on. I looked at him, my gaze asking him if he still wanted to dance. He answered me silently by taking my right hand in his left, placing my left hand on his shoulder and his right hand on my waist.

"So…" I said after a moment of dancing.

"So…" he repeated my words.

"I really am sorry about ignoring you this past year. It was stupid," I told him.

"I concur!" he agreed dramatically. I instinctively (no, it was not a conscience effort and thus it was not a flirtatious act as one Lily Evans would have you believe!) hid my smile in his shoulder. He pulled me a little closer.

"And I really am sorry about kissing…" I began but I was stopped by Sirius who had pulled away from me and put two fingers over my mouth.

I remember thinking: I rather miss his shoulder, but his fingers are nice too…

Agg!

_Boys are unnecessary commodities in life…_

"I told you not to be sorry," he said forcefully. I began to make a sound of protest but he raised an eyebrow telling me to be quiet for a minute.

"I told you I enjoyed myself," he paused giving me some look I could not identify. "Now, being completely honest with me and yourself, did you enjoy yourself?"

Sirius lifted his fingers away from my lips at this time. Now there was no bodily contact between us and I desperately wanted to change that so, without thinking, I answered Sirius's questions without words.

This time I did not pull away.

Sirius was the one to break the kiss though he did so delicately and with quite a bit of regret. Somehow our arms had gotten tangled together and neither of us moved to repair the damage. He put his forehead on mine.

"I take that as a yes," he whispered in the space between our faces.

"I guess so. Just don't tell Lily!" I replied playfully. I think that was a flirtatious act. Talk about betrayal of religion. Of course, all thoughts of sainthood were already thrown to the wind. For the first time in a very long time, I could not hear the voice in the back of my head chanting, and I took full advantage of her absence.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" I asked him while looking up at the ceiling of the Great Hall. It showed a picturesque sky I wanted to take advantage of.

He gave me that mischievous smirk of his before answering in the affirmative. We slipped out of the Great Hall undetected and, after grabbing our cloaks, became known to the stars of the October sky.

Once outside Sirius took my hand gently in his and we walked in companionable silence. Never once did my thoughts take me where they ought to as our path curved towards the lake and eventually to the tree which I kissed Sirius under a little more than a year ago. This should have triggered the little voice in the back of my head, but apparently she was on vacation or taking a very well-deserved nap.

To my surprise Sirius sat down under the tree and led me to sit next to him. I smiled and leaned into his warm body as much as I could (it was rather cold outside). Still no warning signals.

It really must have been a cute little sight to see: us sitting there all cozy under that tree watching the wind blow ripples across the lake.

The wind shift directions, which caused Sirius's hair to blow in my direction. He always kept his hair fairly long and it was really quite ticklish. I am a very ticklish girl, and thus I began to laugh (not giggle, I'll have you know!).

Sirius looked down at me questioningly before realizing why I was laughing. He smirked rather mischievously before commenting.

"Ticklish, are you?"

I stopped laughing immediately. I knew exactly what was coming.

"No," I answered shortly, but a smile cracked at the corner of my mouth giving away my lie.

"Ahh," Sirius nodded. "So you won't mind when I do…THIS!" he began tickling my sides and I proceeded to fall completely on the ground wreathing around like a cockroach with its head chopped off (not the most romantic mental picture, but that is exactly what it was like!).

I was so out of breath from laughing I could only get in one, very pathetic attempt at a "Sirius! I'm going to kill you!"

As soon as I said it he stopped tickling me and a bark-like laugh emitted from his throat that was concealed by a wonderful neck that looked very kissable right about now…

"Are you now?" he asked amusedly.

"Yes," I answered very matter-of-fact as I started to get my breath back.

Of course, I lost it again shortly after that as he began to trail kisses down _my_ neck (apparently he found my neck very wonderful and very kissable as well).

"That's not going to get you off my hit list," I told him after a minute or so of my voice being completely lost. (Maybe it went to look for her good friend, The-voice-in-the-back-of-my-head, but with an obvious lack of success).

"Oh, well perhaps…" he said before pushing aside my cloak a bit to expose my bare shoulder. Apparently my neck was the only very wonderful and very kissable part of my body.

"No, no, I think you'd have better luck with my neck," I said after a moment (once again my voice had started a search, but to no avail).

"Oh, thanks for the advice, but I don't think I'll be needing it," he answered cockily.

"Is that so?" I asked, but he didn't answer, he only continued his trail of kisses up my neck and to my ear. Well, hat felt very nice and, as it was, he did not need my advice.

"No, I suppose you don't…" I told him breathily.

He then moved to my mouth and bit my bottom lip before telling me to "Please stop talking."

And I did.

I woke up the next morning under the tree wrapped in Sirius Black's arms (fully clothed you naughty, naughty girl!). My eyes fluttered open slowly and my first instinct was to snuggle closer to the very warm thing behind me.

Then it occurred to me (apparently The Voice decided to return from its little vacation).

Agg!

_Boys are an unnecessary commodity in life…_

I jumped a little, waking up Sirius who smirked when he saw me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Good morning," he whispered in my ear before proceeding to kiss me on the lips. Well, since that felt so very nice, The Voice almost went on vacation again.

Almost.

"Sirius! We spent all night out here!" I yelled in a hushed voice exasperatedly.

"Yes, I suppose we did," he answered, pretending to think hard about the answer. He swiveled around so he was sitting behind me and put his arms around my waist and began to trail little kisses up and down my neck.

"We need to go inside! We're going to get in trouble!"

Pause. He was still kissing my neck.

"What are you doing?"

"Okay…" he said lifting his hands up to his sides before standing up, pulling me up along with him.

"I spent the night out here with you!" I said pointing an accusing finger at Sirius as if I had just figured that out. I really am none to bright in the morning.

"We already established that, Love…"

"You just called me Love! Oh God! What did I do?"

"Marlene, you weren't drunk or anything. You really should remember everything…"

"Holy Shit!" I exclaimed cutting Sirius off and hitting myself in the head. "The Voice is going to kill me!"

"Umm… No, but the men with pretty white jackets should be here any minute…"

"Sirius? Do you not understand what is going to happen when we walk back into that castle?" I asked him in panic while grabbing his shoulders and proceeding to shake him back and forth.

"Love, you're not making any sense…"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"Oookkaay…._Marlene_, you're not making any sense…"

"Sirius! I spent the night out here with YOU!"

"Marlene, this was obviously a mistake," Sirius finally said sighing and walking away from me.

At these words, I forgot The Voice and my heart began to break (my fault for not listening to The Voice in the first place, but I learn from my mistakes).

Be assured, I did not cry; I merely stared after him. Granted, I had been a bit hysterical, but it takes a while to break old habits! Obviously he was not as stubborn as I had thought if he was giving up on me this quickly, just because I went a tad bit loony…

Well, I sulked into the common room not long after him and was assailed by one thousand questions from Lily who was making some very accurate conclusions about me and Sirius, though she over-indulged slightly and completely missed what happened this morning. I listened to her excited ramblings just nodding and smiling (that is always effective when in a fix). I never even told Lily what happened.

And thus ends the third event which sealed forever my allegiance to my religion.

Well, perhaps not forever.

Maybe it was watching Lily become Mrs. Potter today. She broke her allegiance forever (this forever really was forever), and I wondered as I handed her James' wedding ring and I watched Sirius hand James Lily's, if I would not be happier if I forgave Sirius for that one sentence he uttered one year ago in frustration, but nevertheless sending me into a silent heartbreak.

Now, as I, the Maid of Honor, and Sirius, the Best Man, share the traditional dance, I discover that while I was pledging to my faith with renewed ardor, I had completely forgotten what it felt like to be wrapped in Sirius's arms.

Judging by his smirk, he had forgotten my warmth as well (though I sure some would argue my coldness), but was pleasantly surprised when we began our dance.

So now I find myself chanting again:

_Boys are unnecessary commodities in life…_

But then I think, how unnecessary are they really? I have been quite miserable for the past year and I believe Lily has sensed it, though I did quite a marvelous job at covering it, if I do say so myself.

I glance over at Lily dancing with James and they look to be in Heaven. Perhaps I should through away my childhood fancies…

_Boys are unnecessary commodities in life…_

'Oh shut up you!' I scream at the little voice inside my head after loosing myself undeniably (and I am capable of denying a lot, as you have discovered) in his grey eyes. 'Let me just talk to him for a little bit, uninterrupted. Last time it proved you correct, remember?'

I am all too aware of Sirius's hand on my back pushing us closer and closer together as I wait for the little voice to start chanting… but it never starts.

Have I granted myself permission to talk to The One and Only Sirius Black of romantic issues?

Apparently.

"Sirius," I say rather quietly and with minimal lip movement as we are still quite in the spot-light.

"Yes?" He asks just as quietly (though I suspect he already knows what I am about to address).

I pause for a moment contemplating what to say next. Well, this is a fine situation. I was so happy about The Voice shutting up for twice that I put no thought into what I intended to say.

"I'm sorry about how I acted," I find myself stating, though I am still trying to figure out the source of these words. I certainly did not demand them to leave my lips.

"Well, I am rather good-looking and it is very unlikely anyone was watching you during the ceremony," he tells me with a wink. I give him a puzzled look and a second later I am laughing (quietly of course, as even at my silent giggles earn a glare from on-lookers).

"First of all," I whisper into his ear. "I was not talking about the ceremony. Second of all, I was NOT ogling you during the ceremony."

Sirius gives a small shrug, his trademark smirk still spread across his face. "Could have fooled me."

I smile and tell him, "I am TRYING to tell you something important."

By now I am speaking louder, as now everyone is dancing (our Maid of Honor-Best Man dance is over). Of course, we're still drawing quite a bit attention to ourselves as the lovebirds since there is an upbeat song playing and we are still slow dancing. Life is quite ironic, isn't it? The stand-offish girl from Hogwarts, slow-dancing when she could be waving her arms about in random directions.

"Sorry."

"You bet that pretty little arse of yours," I say. Oh God. Please tell me I did not just say that. Yes, he does have quite a nice little bottom, but he doesn't need to know I was looking…

Sirius let out a bark. "So you've been looking, have you?"

I ignore him. First, because I have absolutely no retort for that other than the ever lame, 'You wish.' Secondly, I need to say this before I loose my nerve and whatever voice that possessed me when I started this conversation in the first place.

"I'm sorry for going completely bonkers after the Halloween Ball last year," I tell him. So, that's what I'm sorry for! I suppose it makes sense.

Sirius stopped swaying for a moment, contemplating what I said. I would not be surprised if he thought this was a polyjuice Marlene McKinnon—it is not in my nature to apologize for much of anything. Stubborn, remember?

"I'm sorry too, for saying what I said. I know it was a bit harsh. I mean, I know that was the first time since—well, anyways, I should have been a bit more patient…" he trails off.

I gave a small laugh. "We're both a bit pathetic, I suppose." Sirius laughs with me, that wonderful bark-like laugh (I am feeling rather like one of those love-struck gigglers right now, so feel free to block out some of these ramblings entirely).

We stop moving and Sirius leans his head against mine very gently. "Do you want to give this another try?"

I stand there, looking quite stupid I am sure (we are still standing in the middle of the dance floor during a quite upbeat song not moving at all). I am biting my lip, anticipating that The Voice will chime in at any moment.

It never spoke.

I _gaze_ into Sirius's eyes and smile. "Yes," I say quite confidently, as if I were never surer of anything in my life. This was another irony, considering my past experiences with "unnecessary commodities," especially the one standing before me. However, I was feeling less like Sirius was an "unnecessary commodity," as I would have called him just hours before.

Sirius smirks and pulls me closer to him, his hand traveling lower down my back (he seemed to find my arse quite pretty as well, if you catch my drift) and his face comes closer to mine. Our breath mingles for a moment and then he kisses me. Perhaps I should re-adopt my old motto, because I have been without it for a mere five minutes and I already feel like a giggler: he has left me breathless with just that small kiss. The little voice does seemed to have died, however, and I will admit, if this is why the gigglers giggled, I can't say I blame them.

"So, first order of business as my girlfriend…" he begins after our lips part, but I stop him mid-sentence, my tone indignant (I, after all, am not an object to be owned! I am not 'his' anything).

"No Sirius, you're my boyfriend." Sirius on the other hand, is a different story.

"What's the difference?"

We trail off into an argument, but arguing has suddenly become much more enjoyable…

Kind of like how things once "unnecessary" have suddenly become quite a necessity…

My name is Marlene McKinnon and I feel in love with The One and Only Sirius Black.

Okay, this was NOT the image of boys I set out to portray…

But one thing must be said for my shift of purpose, this ending is much better:

And Marlene woke up the next morning in Sirius Black's arms and she smiled.

THE END.


End file.
